The renowned Foscolian Library was housed in the poet’s home. It was destroyed during the Second World War and in the earthquakes of 1953.

Iosif Spyridon Deviazis (also referred to as De Biasi or De – Biasi, 13 May 1849 – 10 March 1927) was a Greek scholar and antiquarian of the 19th and 20th centuries.

He was born on 13 May 1849 in Corfu and was of the Catholic faith. He was chiefly of Italian origin: his grandfather was Vicenzo De Biasi, a sergeant in the British army in Cephalonia until 1812, and his grandmother Anna Ang. Konomou from Zakynthos. His parents were Venerando De Biasi (son of Vicenzo and Anna) and Francesca De Blasio from Lissa in Dalmatia.

Education and early activity

Deviazis was a man of very broad learning and knew several foreign languages. He spent his school years at the Lyceum of Corfu, though it is not certain that he completed his studies there, and he is also said to have been a pupil of the composer Mantzaros, from whom he learned piano, harmony and counterpoint.

He is described as a devout and fervent Catholic. Indeed in 1878 he was obliged to leave his birthplace because of the reaction caused by a pamphlet of his written in Italian, in which he asked for the Catholic chapel housed within the church of Saint Spyridon to reopen, omitting to mention the popular belief that the deadly explosion of 1718 in the powder magazine of the old fortress of Corfu was the result of Saint Spyridon’s wrath at the establishment of a Catholic altar within the Orthodox church after a decision by the Venetian governor-general Pisani, who was among the victims of the explosion.

Flight to Zakynthos and later career

After leaving Corfu he settled in Zakynthos, where he spent most of his life. He worked as a teacher of Italian and in 1888 was appointed director of the newly founded municipal Foscolian Library of the island, contributing significantly to its enrichment.

He collaborated with many periodicals, almanacs and newspapers, writing and publishing a large number of studies and biographies. He was a member of the Royal Genealogical Academy of Pisa, of the “Bellini” Artistic Society of Catania, of the Byzantinological Society, of the Society for Byzantine Studies, and so on.

For his contribution he was honoured by the Greek state first with the Silver Cross (1894) and later (1919) with the Gold Cross of the Redeemer.

In February 1927 he fell ill with influenzal bronchopneumonia and died on 10 March of the same year in the municipal hospital of Zakynthos where he was being treated.

Selected works

Below follows a list of some of his works:

Spyridon Deviazis (1878). Alcuni Documenti intorno l’ accidentale catastrofe avvenuta nell’ isola di Corfú nell’ anno 1718. Tip. G. Nacamulli Edit.: Corfu.
Spyridon Deviazis (1890). Ugo Foscolo and the Greek Revolution. In Zakynthos: “Foscolo” Printing House.
Spyridon Deviazis (1904). Italian travellers in Greece, 1200–1899. Contained in the “Geographic Bulletin”, Year 1, issues 1–4.
Spyridon Deviazis (1904). Education in the Ionian Islands: (1386–1864). Ethniki Agogi.
Spyridon Deviazis (1919). Catalogue of editions, essays and notes, 1876–1919. In Zakynthos: D. Kontogiorgas Printing House.
Spyridon Deviazis (1968). Painting in Greece. Zakynthos: Library of Zakynthian Studies.
Spyridon Deviazis (1904). The goldsmith’s art in Zakynthos. Zakynthos: Pinakotheke, Year 4, issue 39, pp. 54–55.